Yet another wood identification

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RichardG

If at first you don’t succeed have a cup of tea.
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I had a load of wood dropped off by a local landscape gardener which he‘s just removed from a garden. Some Cherry but also another wood that appears to be purple inside when cut, both trees were removed due to rot which is a shame as the purple wood trunk would have otherwise been a decent size. After chainsawing outside it’s left me with a horrible taste…Yew?

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Hi, the bark on the first photo looks like cherry to me, can’t comment on the timber itself except to say not Yew in my opinion. Ian
 
My overgrown lilac was that same purple colour when cut. Soon faded, but awesome at first.
 
When my parent's house was sold up there was a lilac tree in the front garden and a plum tree in the back garden. Both in a poor condition so I seasoned some of the wood to make a chess set. The lilac grain was absolutely beautiful and contained a similar delicate shade of purple as in Richards photo. Unfortunately as in Fitzroy's experience the purple has faded. On the other hand the plum wood was a rich brown and provided a marked contrast between the two opposing sides of the set, photos attached. ( The box is neither lilac nor plum but spalted silver birch) Ian.A
 

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Thanks everyone for their thoughts, obviously not a straightforward one. I’ll cut and plane a piece up to see if that gives any more clues. The purple seems to be fading already…..
 
An update, after having a discussion with the Landscape gardener he said it was definitely from the Prunus family and if he had to go further, a type of Gauge. For info here’s a bit planed up.

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I particularly liked the shavings, I almost convinced someone I’d dropped a bag of Smokey Bacon Frazels.

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An update, after having a discussion with the Landscape gardener he said it was definitely from the Prunus family and if he had to go further, a type of Gauge. For info here’s a bit planed up.
I'd agree with the Prunus sp too - though I think it would be a "gage", rather than a measuring instrument!
 
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